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Essays

The Gold in Golden Age Detective Fiction

By Anthony Horowitz

November 9, 2020

My novel, Moonflower Murders, is actually two books in one. My heroine, an editor called Susan Ryeland, lives in the twenty-first century and is called upon to solve a crime whose perpetrator (the wrong man as it turns out) is still in jail. The clue that reveals the real killer is concealed in a book…

A Hundred-Year-Old Unsolved Crime Inspires A Crime Novel and A Personal Journey

By Nev March

November 5, 2020

In the 1970s, as a teen in Mumbai I chafed against the restrictions my parents imposed: not allowed to travel alone, either walking or by public transport, nor visit new places with friends. Joining a college hiking trip, whether all girls or a mixed-gender group—was out of the question. In explanation, I was told, “Remember…

The Lost Manuscript: It Could Happen to You!

By Susan Cox

November 4, 2020

We all resent Julius Caesar for “accidentally” burning the Library at Alexandria, and we’re still pretty peeved at Robespierre and his compadres for burning millions of manuscripts, volumes, and scrolls during the French revolution. But in more recent decades manuscripts have been lost in a startling variety of ways from theft, to house fires, to…

Lady Dunbridge, The New Woman, and the Dime Novel Detective

By Shelley Noble

October 28, 2020

When I was developing ideas for writing a Gilded Age Manhattan mystery series, I knew that I wanted to set in in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. My protagonist Lady Dunbridge would be one of the “new” women. I would blend history with the popular imagination of the era. An adventure story that…

Rattlesnake Rodeo and Risking Fanged Death for a Novel Thriller Idea

By Nick Kolakowski

October 27, 2020

It’s easy to panic when you realize that a five-foot rattlesnake is swimming a few feet away from you. My wife and I had agreed to let a good friend of ours take us on a hike through the wilds of eastern Oregon. The hike itself, we’d been assured as we loaded up the SUV…

6 Novels with Scary Twins

By Rose Carlyle

October 23, 2020

Everyone loves twins. When parents of twins set out for their first walk with their new babies bundled up in a double stroller, they quickly learn just how popular twins are. Passers-by comment that they are “doubly blessed” and that twins will be “twice the fun.” Yet in fiction, a more sinister view of twins…

The Intersection of Noir and Horror

By John Woods

October 22, 2020

Many of my favorite novels are not easily classified and often fall under that nebulous term “Literary Fiction.” But I value my origins. As a teenager, I learned to love reading through the Horror genre, and I knew just where to go in the stacks to find Stephen King and Anne Rice. When I later…

Once Upon A Halloween Night: “HACK”

By Crime HQ

October 22, 2020

Hosted by Christopher Golden and actor and bestselling author Amber Benson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Once Upon A Halloween Night featured St. Martin’s Press and Tor Nightfire authors teaming up to write a horror short story in real-time. The end result was “HACK.” A special thank you goes out to all of the participating authors (in…

Rock Fought the Law and the Songs Won: Pop Music Gets Criminal (but stops short of homicide)

By Hector DeJean

October 16, 2020

Crime has inspired so much music that multiple volumes could be devoted to the subject. Certainly the blues, country, punk, and hip-hop have all produced songs with crime at the center, but so have Cole Porter (“Miss Otis Regrets”), Berthold Brecht (The Threepenny Opera), folk singers, and big bands. There are whole categories of songs—“murder…

5 Historical Authors to Read Now

By Libby Fischer Hellmann

October 14, 2020

Why are so many crime authors writing historical novels today? It’s a great question with about a hundred answers. Some are writing about specific people or events in the past, both public or personal, that have piqued their curiosity. Others are writing about an era in which civilization and people were so different from today…

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